A winding tape used for winding- up and securing rolls of printed products is wound up together with the printed products and further wound at least once around the finished, wound-up packet (roll) of printed products and fastened to itself. Generally speaking, the winding tape, as with other fastening tapes which are fastened around any article, needs to be fastened to itself. Usually, such fastening tapes are destroyed when they are removed from the article. If for any reason a winding tape or a fastening tape is to be used in unshortened form several times, it must be possible to open the fastening without destroying the tape. Such a fastening function is usually realized by mechanical fastening or locking systems with self-closures (burr strips, ratchets) or frictional engagement (squeezing or clamping devices), which can be opened and closed repeatedly a random number of times, or with cohesively acting joining means (glue), which in certain circumstances can be separated again, although there are limits with respect to such cohesive means. The free selection of such means for fastening the tape is usually limited by the intended application. Mechanical fastenings require more space than separable cohesive fastenings, but are usually stronger than the latter.
Winding and fastening tapes are tensioned longitudinally, i.e., in the direction of the tape length. The tape and fastening means must both be able to withstand this tension. Other types of loading and stressing only have a minor significance. A tape fastener, which is adequately tensionable in the direction of the tape length, fulfills its function even if its holding forces in other directions are smaller. The fact of smaller holding forces in some directions can even be advantageous for opening the fastening. If a fastening based on adhesive holding forces is given the correct construction, it can fulfill this requirement. If such a fastening furthermore is to be re-usable a random number of times and if an end portion of the tape is to be fastenable to any other portion of the tape, then several measures must be appropriately interlinked. One vital measure is to maintain the adhesive action over a long period of use.